Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 881 Treasure
It is not so strange that industrial diamonds appear on ships transferring materials, after all, these things are very important to industrial production.

It’s just that there were not many people who could identify diamonds during World War II, so those people probably hid these things after discovering that they were diamonds, and never thought that these things could not be used as gems.

However, not all of these 15 iron boxes were filled with diamonds. In addition to the three boxes of diamonds, there was also a box of gold bars of various sizes, a box of platinum blocks of the same size and a full ten boxes of silver.

"You're right. Our luck can't be bad all the time. Although the silver isn't that valuable, the gold and platinum blocks are still very valuable."

After inspecting these tin boxes, the second step is to check the wooden boxes containing cultural relics. The boxes were originally sealed, but they are almost destroyed now, but several museum marks can still be seen from the remaining seals.

At this time, everyone started to unpack the largest box, and after opening the box, they found that the things inside were some small-sized statues, both Buddhist and Hindu.

The aborigines of the main island of Java are the Javanese and Sundanese who belong to the Malay race.After the first century AD, both the main island and Sumatra in the west became colonies of India and were ruled by the Indian royal family.

In the Sanskrit "Ramayana" book, "Java" is recorded as Yava-dvi^pa, covering the west of Java Island and the east of Sumatra.The Han Dynasty in China transliterated Yava-dvi^pa as Ye Tiao or Ye Po Ti.

According to the biography volume 76 of "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", in the sixth year of Yongjian (131) of the Later Han Dynasty, King Ye Tiao had entered the Han Dynasty as a tribute.From then until the Tang Dynasty, the eastern part of Sumatra was called Sri^-vijaya (the death of the Buddha), and today's Java Island was called Heling.

Even in the early 5th century AD, in the eighth year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (412), the eminent monk Faxian landed in Yevati to seek Buddhism.The Yavati mentioned here is the antiphonal of Yava-dvi^pa, which means ancient Java.

In addition, because there are a large number of Indians in the area, this area was also a Hindu area in the past, and there are still a large number of Hindu-related relics left until today.

For example, the Rakai Picardan dynasty in the 8th-9th centuries AD in East Java, or the Prambanan temple complex built by the Srivijaya dynasty are the largest and most beautiful Hindu temple monuments in Indonesia.

This important relic is a carrier to record the splendid culture of the ancestors of the Indonesians, although Indonesians now use it for religious reasons.It is not very recognized, but it is still listed as a world cultural heritage together with the neighboring Borobudur.

From this point, we can also see the degree of harmony between Buddhism and Hinduism in ancient Java. Therefore, after the collapse of the ancient Indian royal family, Buddhists and Hindus who were unwilling to convert fled to the East to preserve traditional customs.

In this process, the two religions also began to merge, which is why the Hinduism on Bali is very different from that in India, and they even regard Shakyamuni as the main god of worship.

Considering that both Buddhism and Hinduism like to make all kinds of gods, there are several boxes of things taken out of these museums that display the gods of these two religions.

However, considering the convenience of transportation, there are no oversized statues in these boxes, but some relatively small, even pocket-sized statues.

"These statues can be regarded as a collection of high-quality goods from different eras in the Java area. They should be the high-quality goods selected by the museum at that time when they found that they couldn't take away everything." After examining these statues, Liang En came to a conclusion for him.

"Anyway, those people in the museum were very good at that time. At least they picked out the top items. Although these items are stones, they are more expensive than gold of the same weight."

It may be because the climate in this area is hot and humid, which is not conducive to the protection of cultural relics, so there are not many wooden and metal objects that can be left behind. Except for these stone statues, there are only some fragmentary things.

For example, there are some wooden statues here that incorporate local styles, and they look very colorful and interesting. Unfortunately, the earliest ones were all products at the end of the 18th century, so the price is not too high.

In addition, similar miscellaneous items include shadow puppets, kites and a series of gadgets. Obviously, these things were taken away because they were light and small.

It is also very common for such things to appear in museums, because for which colonists, these things are the products that best represent the local aborigines, so they naturally have the value of exhibitions.

"It's a pity that these things need to be repaired before they can be exhibited or sold." Nelson said helplessly. "After all, this kind of organic matter is too easy to damage."

"Personally, I suggest that it is more appropriate to exhibit, because these items are too small to be sold at a high price if they are to be sold." Liang En opened another box while talking. "Hey, it seems that we are lucky, here is actually a weapon."

Some other boxes are almost filled with various weapons, the largest of which is a 1m long but very slender artillery, which is obviously an anti-personnel artillery.

The artillery in this area mainly came from the Ottoman Empire during the Age of Discovery. After realizing the power of the gunpowder weapons of the Portuguese, Spaniards and Dutch, the local rulers went to the Ottoman Empire to learn.

However, after the artillery technology was introduced to the region, a lot of localization was also carried out. For example, the muzzle of these artillery is a faucet with an open mouth.

Obviously this is not the style of Ottoman Turkey, they would never draw or engrave animals on anything for religious reasons, so this must be the result of localization.

"This cannon should fetch a good price." Nelson said very seriously. "Especially for those collectors of artillery, this artillery is definitely something they want."

"Besides the cannon, there are many other things here." Liang En opened another box, only to find that there were more than a dozen small boxes inside, all of which were all kinds of Western sword hilts.

"Why are these things listed separately?" Jeanne asked curiously. "It's not even a sword, it's just parts of a sword."

"Because it involves international trade in the Age of Discovery." Liang En said as he opened a small box.Then he pointed to the hilt with a distinct Japanese Edo period style inside and said.

"At that time, the Dutch had a global trade network, so they also produced many things globally, for example, using human resources in Magang or Edo to produce some things."

"It's like these hilts, they're made in Asia, they're brought back to Europe, they're put on top quality blades from Germany, and they're sold all over Europe."

"What's interesting is that before these swords were assembled, they were not regarded as weapons, but as luxury goods, so they were transported over such long distances. After all, only luxury goods had the value of long-distance transportation in that era."

(End of this chapter)